Joint statement from FIFA and CONMEBOL regarding Colombia

Further to the statement by the Colombian Football Association (FCF) on 27 February 2019, FIFA and CONMEBOL have strongly condemned all forms of sexual abuse, harassment at work, gender-based violence and/or violation of women’s or children’s rights and, following a request by the FCF, have offered their full assistance and the expertise of their competent bodies to the FCF in order to help prevent, and where needed to sanction such violations.

In recent months, FIFA has been working closely with an expert advisory group that includes child protection experts from UNICEF, the Council of Europe and its member associations to help develop FIFA’s child protection programme. FIFA appointed an experienced child protection and safeguarding manager in January and aims to launch a toolkit and training programme soon to assist its member associations in ensuring robust safeguarding and child protection measures and procedures. As part of this programme, FIFA, CONMEBOL and the FCF will be reviewing the federation’s safeguarding measures at its own request, and as a key priority. FIFA, CONMEBOL and its member associations are committed to protecting and safeguarding children in football.

Further, as enshrined in Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes “FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.” As such, FIFA is strongly committed to promoting the safety and wellbeing of all individuals involved in football activities, especially potentially vulnerable people requiring specific attention and protection. FIFA has a zero tolerance policy on human rights violations and condemns all forms of gender-based violence.